cheat
cheated; cheating; cheats
To cheat is to use sneaky, unfair methods to get something you want. No one's going to want to play with you if you always cheat at mini golf.
Some people cheat at cards, and others cheat during math tests by copying from the student beside them. In either case, they're trying to succeed using underhanded tricks. You can refer to someone who does this as a cheat as well. Cheat comes from the Old French escheat, a legal term for the state taking someone's property when he or she dies without heirs. This practice was resented, and it came to mean "confiscate unfairly."
Definitions of cheat
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defeat someone through trickery or deceit
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deprive somebody of something by deceit“we were cheated by their clever-sounding scheme”
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types:
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gazump
raise the price of something after agreeing on a lower price
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cozen
cheat or trick
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fleece, gazump, hook, overcharge, pluck, plume, rob, soak, surcharge
rip off; ask an unreasonable price
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bunco, con, defraud, diddle, gip, goldbrick, hornswoggle, mulct, nobble, rook, scam, short-change, swindle, victimize
(offensive) deprive of by deceit
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bilk
cheat somebody out of what is due, especially money
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beat, bunk
avoid paying
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whipsaw
victimize, especially in gambling or negotiations
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welch, welsh
cheat by avoiding payment of a gambling debt
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beguile, hoodwink, juggle
influence by slyness
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extort, gouge, rack, squeeze, wring
obtain by coercion or intimidation
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short, short-change
cheat someone by not returning him enough money
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engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud
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synonyms:
chisel
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types:
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job
profit privately from public office and official business
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shark
play the shark; act with trickery
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rig, set up
arrange the outcome of by means of deceit
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cozen
act with artful deceit
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crib
use a crib, as in an exam
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cook, fake, falsify, fudge, manipulate, misrepresent, wangle
tamper, with the purpose of deception
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juggle
manipulate by or as if by moving around components
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be sexually unfaithful to one's partner in marriage
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the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme
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cozenage, scam
a fraudulent business scheme
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bunco, bunco game, bunko, bunko game, con, con game, confidence game, confidence trick, flimflam, hustle, sting
(offensive) a swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property
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pyramiding
a fraudulent business practice involving some form of pyramid scheme e.g., the chain of distribution is artificially expanded by an excessive number of distributors selling to other distributors at progressively higher wholesale prices until retail prices are unnecessarily inflated
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holdout
the act of hiding playing cards in a gambling game so they are available for personal use later
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swiz
British slang for a swindle
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shell game, thimblerig
a swindling sleight-of-hand game; victim guesses which of three things a pellet is under
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sting operation
a complicated confidence game planned and executed with great care (especially an operation implemented by undercover agents to apprehend criminals)
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phishing
the practice of sending deceptive emails to trick internet users into revealing confidential or personal information
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type of:
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fraud
intentional deception resulting in injury to another person
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a deception for profit to yourself
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synonyms:
cheating
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types:
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gerrymander
an act of gerrymandering (dividing a voting area so as to give your own party an unfair advantage)
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type of:
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deceit, deception, dissembling, dissimulation
the act of deceiving
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gerrymander
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someone who leads you to believe something that is not true
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bluffer, four-flusher
a person who tries to bluff other people
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chiseler, chiseller, defrauder, gouger, grifter, scammer, swindler
a person who swindles you by means of deception or fraud
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decoy, steerer
a beguiler who leads someone into danger (usually as part of a plot)
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dodger, fox, slyboots
a shifty deceptive person
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betrayer, double-crosser, double-dealer, traitor, two-timer
a person who says one thing and does another
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defalcator, embezzler, peculator
someone who violates a trust by taking (money) for his own use
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falsifier
someone who falsifies
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finagler, wangler
a deceiver who uses crafty misleading methods
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counterfeiter, forger
someone who makes copies illegally
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fortune hunter
a person who seeks wealth through marriage
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figurehead, front, front man, nominal head, straw man, strawman
a person used as a cover for some questionable activity
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dissembler, dissimulator, hypocrite, phoney, phony, pretender
a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives
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imitator, impersonator
someone who (fraudulently) assumes the appearance of another
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fake, faker, fraud, humbug, imposter, impostor, pretender, pseud, pseudo, role player, sham, shammer
a person who makes deceitful pretenses
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liar, prevaricator
a person who has lied or who lies repeatedly
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misleader
someone who leads astray (often deliberately)
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charlatan, mountebank
a flamboyant deceiver; one who attracts customers with tricks or jokes
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obscurantist
a person who is deliberately vague
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sandbagger
someone who deceives you about his true nature or intent in order to take advantage of you
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two-timer
someone who deceives a lover or spouse by carrying on a sexual relationship with somebody else
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utterer
someone who circulates forged banknotes or counterfeit coins
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card shark, card sharp, card sharper, cardsharp, cardsharper, sharper, sharpie, sharpy
a professional card player who makes a living by cheating at card games
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clip artist
a swindler who fleeces the victim
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coiner
a maker of counterfeit coins
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con artist, con man, confidence man
a swindler who exploits the confidence of his victim
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Judas
someone who betrays under the guise of friendship
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mimic, mimicker
someone who mimics (especially an actor or actress)
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name dropper
someone who pretends that famous people are his/her friends
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paperhanger
someone who passes bad checks or counterfeit paper money
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false witness, perjurer
a person who deliberately gives false testimony
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craniologist, phrenologist
someone who claims to be able to read your character from the shape of your skull
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quack
an untrained person who pretends to be a physician and who dispenses medical advice
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ringer
a contestant entered in a competition under false pretenses
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roper
a decoy who lures customers into a gambling establishment (especially one with a fixed game)
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shill
a decoy who acts as an enthusiastic customer in order to stimulate the participation of others
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charmer, smoothie, smoothy, sweet talker
someone with an assured and ingratiating manner
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fabricator, fibber, storyteller
someone who tells lies
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Tartufe, Tartuffe
a hypocrite who pretends to religious piety (after the protagonist in a play by Moliere)
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welcher, welsher
(derogatory) someone who swindles you by not repaying a debt or wager
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whited sepulcher, whited sepulchre
a person who is inwardly evil but outwardly professes to be virtuous
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weedy annual grass often occurs in grainfields and other cultivated land; seeds sometimes considered poisonous
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synonyms:
Lolium temulentum, bearded darnel, darnel, tare
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weedy annual native to Europe but widely distributed as a weed especially in wheat
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synonyms:
Bromus secalinus, chess
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type of:
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brome, bromegrass
any of various woodland and meadow grasses of the genus Bromus; native to temperate regions
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brome, bromegrass
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘cheat'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
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